Call the Midwife stars Jennifer Kirby and Leonie Elliot reveal who the real divas on set are

Call the Midwife's Jennifer Kirby and newbie Leonie Elliott have let slip who the real divas are on the set of the much-loved BBC drama.

Yep, it's the babies.

Appearing on Lorraine this morning, Jennifer and Leonie revealed what it's like working with babies on the show, which returns for its hugely-anticipated seventh series next week.

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BBC/Neal Street Productions/Nicky Johnston

'There's such rules with babies, you're only allowed certain times on set at one time, they're the most special little things,' host Lorraine Kelly began, prompting Jennifer to joke: 'They're little divas.

'They cry... They're on for half an hour, and then they're off again..' she added.

Leonie admitted: 'It's a lot to think about [acting with babies], so you're pretty happy to hand them back to mummy...'

Lorraine made the stars laugh by suggesting the babies also made outlandish diva demands, requested riders, and even had entourages. Give them a couple of years...

Meanwhile, Call the Midwife's creator Heidi Thomas has teased what fans can expect from the new series at a special screening earlier this week.

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'Well, we are still feminist, we are still furious, we still have fun, we're still fragile, we will still make you cry,' she said (via Radio Times).

Series seven returns to a hazardously snow covered Poplar in East London in 1963, when the capital is in the middle of the infamous Big Freeze. And arriving through the treacherous weather will be the show's first-ever West Indian midwife, Nurse Lucille Anderson (played by Leonie) who is excited to join her co-workers at Nonnatus House.

BBC/Neal Street productions

And besides the babies, Heidi revealed the main star of the show.

'It is the uterus,' she continued. 'And its ability to break hearts, to make lives, to shape destinies. So let's hear it for series seven and the uterus!'

And while the show is undoubtedly feminist, it's also a period drama, and thus has to remain historically accurate which is why the new series will feature Jennifer's Nurse Valerie Dyer taking part in a beauty contest.

'Actually it really works for Valerie, because she's just the kind of person that does muck in. Even though something might seem that maybe it would make her uncomfortable, it doesn't,' Jennifer revealed at the screening.

Helen George – who plays Nurse Trixie – added: 'The beauty contest thing was quite an anomaly because we were: 'Well we can't have a beauty contest, this is a very strong female show! It doesn't feel right!''

'But historically it was so correct and accurate to do that, but with our modern eyes we were absolutely appalled that we would have to do a beauty contest. But it makes complete sense and it just goes to show the progress that we have made now, looking back on feminism in the sixties.'